One night after senior Kolby Hoover’s big game, it was teammate Erik Kelly’s turn to dominate against the Ketchikan Kings — pouring in 32 points on 8 of 11 foul shooting.
Still, the Crimson Bears would need to play better defense Thursday night to secure a win over their rivals.
Kayhi junior Marcus Lee scored 35 points — and notched his 1,000th point in a Kings uniform — to lead Kayhi (11-9, 3-3 SEC) to a 81-69 win over Juneau-Douglas (10-13, 3-5 SEC).
“(Marcus) gave us the leadership we needed, he played 32 minutes, and he’ll play 32 minutes the next two games if he can keep himself in a good defensive position,” Ketchikan coach Eric Stockhausen said.
The Kings play Thunder Mountain tonight and tomorrow night to wrap up their 2017-18 Southeast Conference schedule.
Chris Lee scored 12 points and sophomore James Norlund — who splits time between junior varsity and varsity —scored 11 points for Kayhi.
The Kings shot 63 percent from the field, according to Stockhausen. Marcus Lee missed just two shots over the entire game.
“I think it just came down to our poor defense,” said senior Kasey Watts, who gave a pre-game speech for senior night. “We made them hot because our defense was soft.”
Watts added 13 points and Hoover scored 15 points for JDHS in the loss.
Ketchikan jumped out to an early lead and led 19-16 late in the first quarter.
Then Marcus Lee took over, scoring 12 of the next 22 Kings points with a mix of jump shots, floaters and 3-pointers. With 1:42 left in the second quarter, Lee made a high-arcing 12-foot jumper, giving him 18 points on the game and 1,001 points on his high school career.
Stockhausen immediately called a timeout.
“I was getting excited because we were going on a run and I hit that shot,” said Marcus Lee, his left arm wrapped around the game basketball for safe-keeping. “But when coach called a timeout, I looked back and saw my parents and I saw my teammates jumping around, I was like, ‘OK, that’s my 1,000th.’ So, it was an awesome feeling.”
JDHS trailed 41-31 at halftime but went on a 6-0 run to begin the third quarter, trimming their deficit to four points.
Turnovers and missed shots prevented the Crimson Bears from getting any closer to the Kings though, and Marcus Lee kept scoring.
“We got it down to four and then a couple turnovers and they turned those into 3-pointers and it pushed back to 10,” JDHS coach Robert Casperson said. “And then we were basically 10 points (behind) the rest of the night.”
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
